Terracotta Bureaucrat

Liner Notes

Lazyafro:
I've been in a FAWM funk this February (which is a lot less fun than it sounds), but @stephenwordsmith has once again left me inspired, so I put some music to his song "Terracotta Bureaucrat." I un-retired my rap persona "The Postman" for it, and it's musically very different from what I usually put out, but sometimes that makes for the most interesting music.

Lyrics

Terracotta bureaucrat, a
cataphract of admin matters
Bamboo scroll in hand with knife
For paperwork in afterlife

Terracotta bureaucrat, a
pen to scribe and ink to spatter
Join your god-king child immortal
Form his heaven's IT portal

Terracotta bureaucrat
Terracotta bureaucrat

Terracotta bureaucrat, a
jotter-down of admin chatter
Pen held tight, more might than sword
- To impress the emperor

Terracotta bureaucrat, a
secretary of despot patter
Sponger of an undead army
Work-death balance drives you barmy

Terracotta bureaucrat
Terracotta bureaucrat

BRIDGE
As hereafter's horde doth rise, Terracotta bureaucrat
You cross the Ts and dot the Is, Terracotta bureaucrat
O play your part in undeath's aims
They kick the arse, you take the names -
No life insurance left to claim
O Terracotta bureaucrat!

Wow! This is fabulous, everything about it. Brilliant lyrics, and love that deep drum, in fact all the instrumentation sounds percussive. Very powerful mix of instruments and mix of rhythms too. It's hypnotic. And I haven't even got to the vocal yet which is also excellent. Wow! What a great song. So glad I stopped by to hear it.

I have a feeling I'm gonna wake up singing terracotta bureaucrat tomorrow. It really sticks in the head and that's a good thing. This is really well crafted all the way around. Like the humor as well. Really good collaboration.

The comical delivery of some of the stanza's last lines is excellent. You say you un-retired your rap persona, but it sounds effortless, like you could do a whole album of this. Great production, too. Good job.

Wow, this works surprisingly well as a rap! It shouldn't surprise so much, I suppose, as the rhythm of the lyrics really lends itself to rhythmic spoken delivery. Brings out an edgy, angrier dimension in the witty-but-serious lyric.

Once I got over the unbridled hilarity of hearing my nom de plume rapped over the credits of a hip-hop intro (dunno how you did that with a straight face, but kudos - amazing) I was free to appreciate the life you breathed into this terracotta lyric.

My intention when I wrote the words was to have them fast-paced and percussive. I didn't have a genre in mind, but I can see how they lent themselves to rap. And you delivered. Mate. Incredible. The flow, the beat... super cool.

All those little touches you made enhanced the piece - the call-and-response added characterisation as well as making the lyric more audible, and the needle slowdown followed by the frenetic drumming shook up the soundscape nicely.

The title did make for quite a good hook, didn't it? And well-delivered. This is about as cool as the phrase 'terracotta bureaucrat' will ever sound.